Vaughan Williams, Ralph: Toward the Unknown Region. Rental
Song for Chorus and Orchestra
Words by Walt Whitman
Full score and instrumental material
(Vocal scores are available for sale (D49))
Please contact the Hire Library for further details.
Alternatively, hire material for this work can be requested through Zinfonia.
Duration: 14 minutes
For SATB choir with three flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two harps, organ and strings.
A reduced orchestration is also possible (2.1.2.2. 2.2 0.0. timpani, piano & strings) using the same material.
New: An arrrangement of this title by Paul Noble for Concert Band and chorus is now available for sale on bandmusicpdt.net.
Darest thou now O Soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?
No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.
I know it not O Soul;
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us;
All waits, undreamed of in that region, that inaccessible land.
Till when the ties loosen,
All but the ties eternal, time and space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us.
Then we burst forth, we float,
In time and space, O Soul, prepared for them,
Equal, equipt at last, (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil, O Soul.
Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
